BRITAIN’S BILLIONAIRE ALFIE BEST REVERTS TO ISLAM
Alfred William Best aka Alfie Best, the current chairman of the mobile home park company Wildcrest Parks and richest businessman in the United Kingdom, has reverted to Islam. According to reports, Alfred William Best, the current chairman of the mobile home park company Wildecrest Parks and one of the richest persons in the world, has also entered the fold of Islam. A few months ago, Alfie Best shared a picture from a mosque with the caption, “Allah guides, none can misguide. Whoever He misguides, none can guide.” Recently Alfie Best shared a video of himself driving his New Range Rover P440e HSE, with the caption, ‘All Praise to God… Alhamdulillah’. Interestingly, Alfie started his business from a phone shop in 1990 and now he is one of the richest people in Britain. According to reports, in 2019 Sunday Times UK included Alfie in the list of Britain’s richest people. Together, Alfie Best Sr., the founder of a mobile home park empire, and his son, Alfie Jr., now 25 years old, are worth £700 million, as reported by the Sunday Times Rich List.
KOSOVO, SERBIA AGREE TO NORMALISE TIES
The leaders of Kosovo and Serbia have agreed on how to implement an EU-backed deal to normalise ties, the bloc’s foreign policy chief said on March 18. The agreement came after 12 hours of talks between Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and EU officials in Ohrid, North Macedonia. “Kosovo and Serbia have agreed on the Implementation Annex of the Agreement on the path to normalisation of relations. The parties have fully committed to honouring all articles of the agreement and implementing their respective obligations expediently and in good faith,” Josep Borrell told reporters. Vucic said after the meeting that some sort of agreement was reached. “Certainly this will not be all. These few points that we have agreed on will become part of the negotiation framework for both sides.” But Kurti said Vucic did not sign the implementation deal on March 18. “Now it is up to the European Union to find a mechanism to make this agreement legally and internationally binding,” he added.
TÜRKIYE REJECTS EU REPORT ON 1915 EVENTS
Spokesperson of the Turkish Foreign Ministry has rejected a recent European Parliament report on EU-Armenia relations, which made some allegations with regards to the 1915 events, a report said on March 18. “It is seen that the European Parliament insists on including baseless allegations about our country and the 1915 events in its ordinary report,” Tanju Bilgic said on March 17. “These views, which are incompatible with historical facts and international legal norms, have no validity for us,” he added.
He asked the European Parliament “to act in accordance with political morality and international law, rather than repeating such unilateral and baseless claims.” Türkiye’s position on the events of 1915 is that the deaths of Armenians in eastern Anatolia took place when some sided with invading Russians and revolted against Ottoman forces. A subsequent relocation of Armenians resulted in numerous casualties. Türkiye objects to the presentation of the incidents as “genocide” but describes the 1915 events as a tragedy in which both sides suffered casualties. Ankara has repeatedly proposed the creation of a joint commission of historians from Türkiye and Armenia plus international experts to tackle the issue.
AZERBAIJAN ACCUSES ARMENIA OF SPREADING ‘FALSE STATEMENT’
Azerbaijan on March 17 accused Armenia of spreading “false and slanderous statement” about remarks by President Ilham Aliyev at Thursday’s session of the Organisation of Turkic States in Ankara. In a statement on its website, the Foreign Ministry said Armenia “aims at covering up the occupation policy” carried out for nearly 30 years, as well as “the provocations it committed and may commit in the future against Azerbaijan and Azerbaijanis during the current post-conflict period.” “Presenting the facts of purposeful destruction of hundreds of our cities and villages, historical and religious monuments by Armenia during the 30-year occupation; the plundering of our natural resources; the disappearance of nearly 4,000 of our citizens and the discovery of mass graves; Armenia’s continued mine threats; failure to completely remove the Armenian armed forces from the territories of Azerbaijan contrary to territorial integrity and sovereignty … obstructing the opening of the Zangezur corridor; ethnic cleansing against the Azerbaijani population in Armenia and the demand for the safe and dignified return of the Western Azerbaijan Community to their native lands, as a “territorial claim” and “preparation for aggression” against Armenia, is completely groundless,” the ministry said.
US COLLEGE RESISTS PRESSURE FROM PRO-ISRAEL GROUPS
An American professor teaching a course on “Apartheid in Israel-Palestine” has come under attack from several right-wing, pro-Israel organisations who have made the “outrageous” claim that the very title and existence of the course is “anti-Semitic”. Details of the standoff between Bard College, which employs Professor Nathan Thrall, and the pro-Israel groups have been revealed by the Jewish organisation Academia for Equality (AfE). Thrall is a Jerusalem-based author and the former director of the Arab-Israeli Project at the International Crisis Group. The course was offered last month by New York’s Bard College, which is a liberal arts institute. “This course will examine Israel-Palestine and the crime of apartheid,” said the course description. “Through close scrutiny of recent reports on Israeli apartheid by leading human rights organisations, including Human Rights Watch, Al-Haq and B’Tselem, as well as criticisms of those reports, students will survey the central issues concerning apartheid in Israel-Palestine.”
TURKISH RESEARCHER STUDIES BRAIN DRAIN REVERSAL
A Turkish researcher investigates the effects of dysfunction in the cerebral vascular system on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s-like diseases with his project in Türkiye on the human cerebral circulation system. Dr. Emrah Eroglu came to Türkiye as part of the 2232 International Leading Researchers Programme of the country’s Scientific and Technological Research Council (TUBITAK) while he was doing research at Harvard University in the US. Born in a small village in Austria,Eroglustarted working as a carpenter at an early age. He graduated from high school at the age of 27. He continued his education at the Department of Molecular Biology of the University of Vienna and the Technical Chemistry graduate programme of the Vienna Technical University. He studied at Harvard University for two years and Austria’s Medical University of Graz for a year as a postdoctoral researcher. But he came to Türkiye in 2019 after his research at Harvard, applying for TUBITAK’s research programme.
MOROCCO JOINS SPAIN, PORTUGAL TO HOST 2030 FIFA WORLD CUP
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI on March 14 announced that his country is to join Spain and Portugal in a joint bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup. The statement by the king was read out at a meeting of the Confederation of African Football. “This joint bid, which is unprecedented in football history, will bring together Africa and Europe, the northern and southern Mediterranean, and the African, Arab and Euro-Mediterranean worlds,” said the Moroccan monarch. “It will also bring out the best in all of us; in effect, a combination of genius, creativity, experience and means.” This is the sixth time that Morocco has sought to host the international football tournament. The Moroccan national team surprised everyone with their style of play which saw the team reach the semi-final of the FIFA World Cup held in Qatar in December.